Lewis Hamilton is a British racing driver who has won seven Formula One World Championships. [1] He made his Formula One debut with the McLaren team in 2007, achieving his first career victory in that year's Canadian Grand Prix from his maiden pole position in only his sixth Grand Prix start. [2] Hamilton achieved three more victories that season, [3] becoming the second rookie after Jacques Villeneuve to be World Drivers' Championship runner-up, and equalled Villeneuve's record of most Grand Prix wins in his debut season. [4] The following year, he won five Grands Prix, [lower-alpha 1] becoming, at 23 years and 300 days, the youngest driver to win the World Drivers' Championship at the time following a last-lap overtake on Timo Glock at the final round of the season, the wet-weather affected Brazilian Grand Prix. [lower-alpha 2] [7] [8] The next four seasons saw Hamilton achieve two victories in 2009, three in each of 2010 and 2011 and four in his final season with McLaren in 2012. [9]
Contents
- Wins
- Number of wins at different Grands Prix
- Number of wins at different circuits
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
He replaced the retired Michael Schumacher at the Mercedes team in 2013. [7] Hamilton finished fourth in the championship, with a solitary victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, in a season dominated by the Red Bull team and its driver Sebastian Vettel. [10] In 2014 and 2015, he achieved his second and third drivers' championships, with 11 and 10 Grand Prix victories, respectively, and developed a rivalry with his Mercedes teammate and former friend Nico Rosberg, with notable race incidents and crashes between the two. [7] Hamilton won 10 more races in 2016, but lost the championship to Rosberg, breaking the record for the most victories in a single season without winning the World Championship. [7] [11] He followed this with four consecutive championships, scoring nine victories in 2017 and 11 each in 2018, 2019 and 2020. [12] [13] During the 2020 season, Hamilton won his 92nd Grand Prix at the Portuguese Grand Prix, breaking Schumacher's record of 91 for the most career Grand Prix victories. [14] He won eight more races in 2021 but did not become World Champion, [12] [13] however, that season saw him become the first driver to achieve 100 victories when he won the Russian Grand Prix. [15] The 2022 season was the first in his career in which he did not win a race. [16] Hamilton ended the 2023 championship in third place with him not winning a race for the second successive year. [17]
Hamilton achieved all his 103 victories in cars powered by a Mercedes engine. He took 21 victories racing for McLaren and the remaining 82 at Mercedes. Hamilton has been most successful at the Hungaroring and the Silverstone Circuit, [3] where he has won eight times each, sharing the record with Schumacher for the most victories at the same race track and the same Grand Prix, the British and Hungarian Grands Prix. [18] [19] He also holds the record for winning the most different Grands Prix and race tracks at 31 each, [20] [21] and shares the record for the most consecutive seasons with at least one victory with Schumacher at 15 years in succession. [22] Hamilton's largest margin of victory was at the rain-affected 2008 British Grand Prix, a race in which he finished 68.577 seconds ahead of BMW Sauber's second-placed finisher Nick Heidfeld, [23] [24] while the narrowest margin was at the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he won by 0.439 seconds over Rosberg as he slowed in an unsuccessful attempt to allow other drivers to catch and pass his teammate in one last attempt to win that year's title. [24] [25]
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